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    Guyana

    There are [5] photos and [1] story about Guyana

    The Last Epiphyte Standing: After all is said and done, after the last pork-knocker has drifted onto the next elusive frontier, you'll find the last 'man' standing, literally on 'his' last legs. This formerly dense rainforest has died from the top down. Only weeks before this image was taken, hundreds of thousands of tonnes of finely sorted tailings from a nearby hydraulic mining pit, oozed completely unchecked out onto the floor of the adjacent virgin jungle. With the humus layer's life-giving aerobic processes cut off, the shallow roots' ability to provide nutrients upward to the canopy ceased. And with supply lines cut the foliage soon withered and died. With their photosynthesizing ability now dead, the energy supply line back to the roots died with it, and so in turn the roots. The result: the standing dead. All except the epiphytes, which, being independent of the tree's vascular system, remain alive a little longer. But what prize for the last plant standing? Soon, through exposure to the harsher elements this poor fellow will too succumb. Beyond the clearing of jungle to build the roads, gain access and expose the deep alluvial gravels, the pork-knocker's impacts continue longer in both time and space. Impacts that by their very nature are mercurial to the core. [T. Powers' Claim, Imbaimadai, Upper Mazaruni, Guyana] by: planet_lars Views[537] Heave Boys, Heave! Brute strength and cunning rule out here. These men work for the boss-man who owns the dredge they pull. Some might have a share in the operation; others take their chances offering their daily labour on speculation that the boss-man's claim may hit pay dirt. Each day they face a myriad of occupational hazards including deafening dredges, powerful hydraulic monitors with the potential to whip out of control and kill in an instant, dengue fever from daytime-biting mosquitoes and the ever present threat of mercury. By night if it's not the drunken riot of a disaffected miner, then it's the evening's malaria-carrying mosquitoes that keep the Guyanese pork-knocker on their toes at all times. [Kamwatta Creek, Eyelash backdam, The North West Districts, Guyana] by: planet_lars Views[1124] Miner Sex: 'Bibi' (right) and her colleague 'Pakistani' are Guyanese sex workers. Plying their trade in these parts they face many of the same issues that the pork-knockers themselves face. But the added risks of STIs and violence place them in an even more vulnerable situation. The pair represent the vast majority of Guyana's ethnic mix. Indo-Guyanese, like 'Pakistani', make up 43% of the population, many of them descendent from the original indentured labourers arriving from East India between 100 and 175 years ago. While 30%, like 'Bibi', identify as descendents of black African slaves emancipated from their English masters 175 years ago. Here at Five Star backdam they're happy to swap a few stories amidst the background din of chainsaws felling towering jungle trees and diesel dredges churning alluvial slurry into sluice boxes. Their smiles reveal their golden dental work; flashy fashion statements perhaps, but moreover a tried-and-tested income security measure. It’s not uncommon to receive payments in gold from their pork-knocking clientele. And there's always a creative 'dentist' a few days away who can oblige. [Clad Adams' Camp, Five Star backdam, The North West Districts, Guyana] by: planet_lars Views[2890] Self-made Men: Just a stone's throw from the site of the infamous Jonestown massacre of 1979, pork-knockers (artisanal miners) Kurth Rodney (right) and his off-sider come seeking their fortunes. They're a small outfit, working for themselves and chasing the derelict ponds and gravel pits the bigger operators leave behind. Guyana’s population of 756,000 live mainly on its inundated Caribbean coastline. Kurth, like so many young unemployed residents from the capital Georgetown, sees a stint in the backdam, despite its social and environmental hazards, as a way to make some quick money. Unfortunately, the backdam, because of its lawlessness, also attracts a strong criminal element. One way to make it harder for your gold to be stolen in these thievish frontiers is to wear it in your mouth. Sporting glistening front teeth of gold Kurth's wry smile says it all: This is MY safety deposit box. [Five Star backdam, The North West Districts, Guyana] by: planet_lars Views[1372] Uncontrolled & Illegal: Ancient rainforests topple and creeks turn into filthy ponds and abandoned dredge pits, strewn with giant roots, enormous burnt trunks and poisoned with cocktails of petro-chemicals and mercury. At depths of greater than three metres lie the gold-bearing gravels. But to get to them a lot of jungle and dirt has to go first. This is an Amerindian mining concessions and it allows these mainly Carib and Awarak peoples to join in on the pillaging of their birth right. But the brunt they bear is often the greatest. The Amerindian miner, unlike others who largely eat imported canned foods, returns to his village to eat contaminated fish caught from rivers polluted by operations like this. Enduring the immediate hazards of these chaotic operations is one thing. Facing the more insidious and deadly threat of mercury is another. Ignorant or not, bio-accumulated mercury IS the ticking time-bomb inside all of them. [Wariquima Amerindian Concession, Jawalla, Upper Mazaruni, Guyana] by: planet_lars Views[1767]
     

    Photos: Pork-knockers in the backdam

    Friday, 5 Jul 2013 | Photo Gallery | Scholarship Entry

    My folks always said I never missed a beat. Indeed my brain exploded trying to take it all in. I recall pre-teen years devouring nature mags. In high school they called me Curnography (surname Curnow) for my obsession with all things geographic. My wanderlust ... Read more >
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    Tags: travel photography scholarship 2013

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